The invention relates generally to electrical cabinets adapted to store, or house, electrical components, and, more particularly to printed circuit boards used in data storage and transfer systems.
As is known in the art, electrical cabinets are used to store, or house, a variety of electrical components such as printed circuit boards. The electrical cabinets allow the components within the cabinet to be interconnected and also allow the internal components to be connected to components external to the cabinets. The cabinets typically have an access door and a number of compartments, such as a card cage, i.e., a housing to store the various interconnected printed circuit boards. In addition, the individual components within the cabinet may be replaced or removed to a different location for repair.
Typically, some of the components are printed circuit boards arranged in a card cage, or housing, in an array of vertical or horizontal guide slots (i.e., a linear array of guide slots) provided between opposing sides of the cabinet. Each board is insertable into a corresponding pair of the opposing guide slots and is urged towards the rear of the cabinet to enable an electrical connector mounted to the rear edge of the board to engage, and thereby electrically connect to, a backplane. A backplane typically is a printed circuit board which contains a plurality of electrical connectors. The backplane commonly is referred to as a mother board. The other printed circuit boards discussed above, which electrically connect to the mother board, commonly are referred to as daughter boards.
As currently configured, when a technician inserts a daughter printed circuit board into one of the guide slots, he/she may inadvertently bend or buckle the printed circuit board. In order to accommodate the quantity and speed of data in systems currently in use, printed circuit boards require a large number of densely packed connectors. Each of these connectors provides resistance when the printed circuit board is inserted into the housing and connected with the backplane. Thus, the greater the number of connectors, the larger the force required to insert and connect the printed circuit board. For example, an existing printed circuit board may require 200 pounds or more of force to insert and connect the printed circuit board to the backplane. However, the printed circuit boards may not have sufficient rigidity to withstand such forces. Therefore, the printed circuit boards may bend, buckle, break, not make a proper electrical connection and/or become misaligned upon insertion into the housing and connection to the backplane.
In addition, when the printed circuit boards buckle, the connectors may be misaligned, and, thus, the insertion force that is required to electrically connect the daughter boards to the mother board may increase. The total required insertion force may surpass the maximum insertion force suggested by the manufacturer for the printed circuit board and/or for the electrical connectors.